Team Inez (House of Garner Book 2)

by Erin R Flynn

  I ended up being really thirsty and taking from both Jaxon and Darius as they made love to me. I wanted to be more involved, but I was so, so tired and let them take the lead, enjoying it immensely but not wanting to be a woman who just lay there ever. As I drifted off, I saw the worried look they exchanged, and I promised myself to eat more tomorrow so I kept up my strength.

  I didn’t ever want them worried over me, but that wasn’t reality. If I did my best to keep that from happening, then that was all I could do.

  The next morning I was still really tired and thought about rolling over for some more sleep, but I refused to be lazy when everyone was working so hard. I didn’t think someone who got up with the sun could be lazy, but I didn’t want to start. Besides, I had coffee as an option. It might be a two cup morning, but at least I was up, right?

  I didn’t hop in the shower, wanting breakfast as my stomach grumbled. Others were already up and eating, and I tried not to let it make me feel bad since they didn’t need as much sleep being older.

  “How do you feel?” Darius asked quietly as I fixed my coffee and sat down.

  “Tired, starving,” I answered, smiling at him. “How are you guys?”

  “Worried,” he admitted, his light blue eyes showing the same. He roughly tightened his ponytail—which always showed me he was holding back what he was feeling or agitated—and sat down with something that smelled divine. “The cooks from the ship have been baking and prepping more and more for the freezers now that they made gobs of yeast.”

  “Is this a cinnamon roll?” I asked, already reaching for it. “I saw this at a camp, and the woman offered to show me how to make them if I married her son. Yeah, of course, and just ignore he was like sixteen. Cults are scary.” I shook my head. “Sorry, tired rambling.” I bit into it and moaned, like moaned. It was fucking divine.

  “Yes, that’s a cinnamon roll, and we agree you need more sugar,” Jaxon murmured as he sat on the other side of me, Cerdic taking a chair across from me. And they all had worried looks.

  “Thanks, this is awesome,” I groaned as I stuffed my face. I didn’t care if I looked like a slob. I was starving, and it was so, so delicious. I gobbled two large ones before I even realized it and wanted the whole pan and the huge plate of eggs, bacon, and fruit Kristof set in front of me. “Okay, what’s going on?”

  “We’ve been pushing you too hard,” Cerdic answered, shaking his head when I opened my mouth to argue. “You slept all yesterday, love.”

  Whoa. That wasn’t what I was expecting they’d say at all. Crap.

  19

  “What? No, I went with…” I trailed off when they all shook their heads. “Oh, wow, sorry.”

  “You needed it,” Jaxon told me. “We keep forgetting you’re a little baby vampire because you’re so powerful and we haven’t been young for so long. It was Eddie who made a shit comment that we were going to run you into the ground and to pull our heads out of our asses. We didn’t think much on it since he doesn’t know all that’s going on, but you were out yesterday. You wouldn’t even get up for food.”

  “I’m sorry I worried you.”

  “We’re sorry we weren’t paying better attention,” Darius whispered, kissing my hair. “We are now. Kristof and Cerdic found fields of winter wheat that reseeded itself even with the neglect. They managed to get the equipment going and sent the cargo plane with semis to retrieve it all. We’re taking an easier day, and people are loading the industrial mills and grinding it all, storing or using it.”

  “Cool. These are seriously awesome,” I said, snagging another cinnamon roll. Then what he said sank in. “The plane’s back? Right, how did that go?”

  “Remarkably well,” James answered, giving me a wink as if understanding I was several steps behind. “I even met Jaxon’s parents as they came out to see for themselves after they were informed we landed and had another message from him. Shocked and impressed are what I’d call their response.”

  “Mother even sent me a message back on the phone you gave the hawk,” Jaxon told me. “She told me that they would start clearing Ireland and making sure the area was safe for anytime we visited.”

  “What does she need?” I asked, understanding there was more to this from the way he was carefully choosing his words.

  “Meat and provisions,” he answered. “I knew some of this when I visited to check on them, but apparently it got worse and people were killing all the animals like idiots to horde but then didn’t have freezers, or for a while people were spreading the rumors that corrupted spread the virus through the animals we ate.”

  “Oh shit,” I whispered, knowing how that would have thrown people into a panic. I bobbed my head as I thought back to my time in the UK. They hadn’t had many animals when I’d passed farms compared to mainland Europe. “Why not look at the mainland?”

  “It’s not smart to travel, or how would they get it all back or preserve it?” he sighed.

  “Right, and now they could,” I muttered. “What is she offering because she can’t think I’ll just keep giving gifts because I love you, right?”

  “No, and even if we’re engaged and I’m neutral, she gave me full authority to make a deal on behalf of the family, which tells me they’re really hurting.” He scrubbed his hands over his head. “We eat a lot more than humans and the shifters too, and we need them for their blood, and then Mother and Sister feed from their nobles. People fled to the mainland thinking it would be better there.”

  “But it wasn’t. Yeah, people were always fleeing, and I took ships or caught rides where they were still convinced it was better somewhere else. It’s not. It’s shit everywhere.” I thought about it as I devoured half the plate of breakfast, wondering if I could get more or if that was pushing it. “How have they survived? What have they done to try and survive?”

  He nodded, understanding I wasn’t trying to be mean, but I wasn’t about to just hand out everything we were working for. “They raided one of the military bases, so they did a lot to clear the area, but they couldn’t get the power on. They tried right when I’d gotten there, and corrupted came and destroyed it all. They have been working though, farming.

  “They have a herd for dairy and chickens. There’s an abundance of produce, but they want to keep the cows and chickens for eggs and milk. They have that, and Mother said they could trade for that or other help. She won’t just give it either, but she is smart and knows being generous makes generous friends, and you were generous, so she will be as well.”

  “And your family?” I asked Cerdic.

  “No word yet, as Princess Nora was giving it to them,” Cerdic answered. “I would guess they’re about in the same position. Some of the royal family survived I heard, but I don’t know. They might be having the same worries as we do about what’s left of the US government and keeping below the radar.”

  “Where’s your head?” Jaxon asked.

  “Wondering if you’ll judge me if I want another plate and a tray of cinnamon rolls,” I admitted as I stared at the plates, seconds from licking them clean. “A bit freaked out I ate that much and still want more.”

  “You’re a growing girl,” James teased me. “It’s normal. I was a bit shocked how little you ate, but it makes sense if you were about starving not two months ago and needing to build up your stomach and strength.”

  Fair enough. And I got more food, which made me happy. I stared at Jaxon as I ate, mulling over what he’d said. “My gut is saying we help them to help themselves. Like they can thin the herds where we found the huge explosion of overpopulation given there were no more humans or people to cull them. But they have to do it responsibly and fill our freezers too kind of thing.”

  “That’s smart,” James praised. “You’re handling the travel and shipping freezers or whatever, so they need to pay for that as well. They had people who were ready to get the solar panels up and knowledgeable for sure. And they had a lot of people who were like Cerdic who could clear packs of corrupted sup
er fast. I say let them help clear for us too.”

  Jaxon nodded. “They’ve got most of Ireland cleared because of swords and close engagement weapons, but the young ones ran or shoot, and those are normally guards and whatnot. They used their ammo that way. There were millions of people in Ireland and at some point, people fled to there thinking the island was safe and brought more corrupted.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, everyone fleeing back and forth.”

  He snorted. “A ship ran aground with ‘survivors’ near the coven, but it was all corrupted. It happened at night, and they came off the ship like bugs to eat them. They’ve had issues and fights, so I don’t want you to think they’re just lazy. Mother would never allow that, and things have been hard everywhere.”

  “I think that’s fair that they help us if we help them get the meat, but what else? We want some of that cheese and eggs, right?”

  “Clothes,” James suggested, shrugging when we glanced at them. “They raided the stores and shops that weren’t already ravaged, but that’s all they’ve had for years. And I think you should know your gift got morphed with the gift for the Wessex coven and cargo planes can’t handle nearly as much as ships can.”

  I bobbed my head as I kept eating. “You said you found a nice private jet at the airport, right? It fits like seventy people or something?”

  “Yes, it just needs you to fix it,” he said, giving me a curious look.

  I wiped my mouth and headed to the camper. I brought back the large map of the area and northern Canada.

  “James also found another nuclear powered cargo ship at port that’s in great shape.” I glanced at Jaxon to let him know I was speaking to him specifically, then tapped the most northern areas of Canada. “This is far enough away from those covens in Quebec and Niagara Falls. They can raid all over here, and we will help them if they help us.”

  “How would that work out?” he asked, standing and leaning his hand on the table so he could see better.

  “You fly home with that plane and tell them what we’re offering, and you can bring back their people to meet up with us as long as someone of your family is with them. Someone trusted that won’t fuck shit up. And if they try to keep you, I will come with the fucking aircraft carrier and blow them up for taking you.”

  “I love you too,” he breathed, hugging me with his other arm. “They wouldn’t, I promise.”

  I nodded I heard him. “There shouldn’t be a lot of corrupted, and if they bring people old enough to sense them or whatever, we handle this whole area. But there are also towns there. Fine, not like Anchorage, there will be inns, grocery stores, and more for them to get gear. For us to get gear too.”

  “So you’re saying let like a hundred of the crew go with whoever they send and load up the ship,” James muttered, moving closer as well from the other side of the table. “They start up there and work their way west along northern Canada. Give them some semis and trailers to run back and forth to the ship and load up. We found that huge cache of freezer shipping containers, so it’s all fine.”

  “Right, and the older vamps they send or the more they send to do more, they could have a huge haul, but do it right,” I said, moving my finger along the path I was thinking. “They do it right, and we’ll help them again, and maybe when the weather is nicer and we have more semis.” I kept moving my finger along the outside of Alaska. “There’s a ton of everything and a lot of animals to thin and not ruin the chance there will be a ton of animals again.

  “There are a bunch of barely touched Walmarts north of here and more. There has to be others this far north, so I’m willing to help and let them have animals and meat if they lend us their age and strength to do it in the harder parts. So depending when they’re loaded up, they drop off our stuff and we let them load up more there.” I tapped British Columbia near Vancouver.

  “So we take them home on the ship, and they give us back what’s fair in cheese and stuff we need?” James checked, nodding when I did.

  “What do you think?” Darius asked Jaxon.

  “Yes, but I would need to go to make this work,” he answered after a few moments. “It’s a smart but bold play that would be a trap most courts would set or underhanded more to it. If I go, it’s a sign of it being real along with I know both sides. I know what we need and what they will. We outline what we need to the group, and they can split it up.”

  “You mean like they might not need housing materials like we will, but they can’t just run to a mattress store, so even if they find mattresses years old, they haven’t been used for years,” Cerdic surmised. “Or other items they would have already used up. Hell, the cleaning and bath supplies galore we’ve found might be enough to make this work.”

  “You’re thinking of your family coven,” I worried, thinking how much more that could complicate things.

  “Yes, but no.” He shared a look with Jaxon. “Your mother is in tight with my mother even if it’s a lot of court bullshit. Let her offer and gather in excess if she wants. Then next time maybe some of the Wessex coven can help, but if we try with them now, my sister will order me home and force Inez to come to her court on her turf if she wants to continue to court me.”

  “Which you won’t do but will be headaches and problems we don’t want,” Kristof explained for me. “I think the plan is smart and efficient, which is hard given the state of the world. We can always go back later as well or how the three of you originally scouted and marked what could be found there. No one says they have to take it all this round, just clear out a full building at a time.”

  “You’re very focused on me returning land to nature,” I said, not sure where his mind went.

  He gave a slow nod. “Because you can. I remember when you couldn’t look more than a few miles and see herds of animals. We won’t ever need to raise animals for meat if nature takes back the land. People aren’t living there anymore, and over half the world was decimated. Let’s put that to rest instead of sadness at ghost towns and cities.”

  I nodded, feeling the same when he put it like that. I only had one more concern. “What if your mother pushes for you to bring me back and be adopted into her coven?”

  He snorted. “That went out the window the moment Kristof officially courted you. No one would be stupid enough to try and chain you to their coven if he was part of the deal or would be unhappy if you were taken from him.”

  I gave a look to Kristof, trying to swallow that pill. “Is that why you did it?”

  “No, but it was why I announced it immediately instead of alluding to it as you did in the message.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Protecting you is important even if I wasn’t interested in you,” he replied like it was no big thing as he studied the map. “Have they not been fishing?”

  “They have, but they mostly bought from human fishers, and it seemed every time they were trying to fight off corrupted, someone stole what they had.”

  “And just about every human with a ship used it to flee or were stolen if someone knew how to use it,” James added. “We’ve seen thousands of ships that weren’t meant for ocean travel that were wrecked or others that were with dead humans that couldn’t handle them. Lots adrift that were abandoned and who knows what happened.”

  “Lots also weren’t anchored enough for what the bombs did to a lot of waters or storms that followed with fallout.” Jaxon sighed. “The coven is huge, and that’s a lot of people to help, but splitting the focus too much is how everything falls apart. There’s no easy answer.”

  “No, there’s not,” I agreed, a few people echoing me. I glanced around. “So we think this is the best play?”

  “Yes, but I don’t want to leave you even for a short trip,” Jaxon grumbled, hugging me to him. “I’ll just have to pack you in my suitcase.”

  “We’re not ready for court visits,” I reminded him. “Besides, I already lost a day, and there’s lots to do.” I stared up at him and licked my lips. “No ghosts today, and I have
a plane and ship to fix. Want to help?”

  “Aye, but you have to promise to eat a ton and take it easy otherwise,” he worried. “Sit on that perfect arse and supervise the flour grinders or whatever, but nothing more.”

  I gave him a goofy salute. “I will eat while sitting and work on my laziness abilities.”

  “Good.”

  I showered and changed while everyone started coordinating what they needed to. We headed to the airport, and I fed from Cerdic, using the energy from his blood to fix the plane they wanted. Then Cerdic, Jaxon, and I found an office in the hangar near us and handled the fire his blood stoked in me as well.

  “You’re not bleeding anymore,” he moaned as he sat me on a desk, his hands under my skirt. “Why are you wearing it?”

  “Because you’ll like it and then you’ll have to come back and see it again,” I whispered as I pulled his head down to mine.

  “I’m coming back,” he swore to me as he quickly undid his pants. He promised again and again as he not only helped with the fire but gave me a proper goodbye that I wouldn’t forget. I fed from him a bit, just so he felt my fangs in him, as I knew how much he liked that.

  Well, as much as I did.

  When we were done and it was time to go, I had trouble saying goodbye. I did to James first, making him promise he was coming back as well. Then I went to Jaxon, searching his gorgeous green eyes for the confidence he would be back so I could let him go.

  “I’ll be back before you know it and with real cheese,” he promised.

  “I’ll film Darius and I having hot sex that you can watch when you get back,” I blurted, not knowing what else to say.

  “Shit, aye, do that,” he groaned, kissing me again. “I love you.”

  He let me go, and I slapped on a smile. “Me too. Have a nice visit home.”

  I was back in his arms in a flash, his strong arms mashing me to him as he lifted me up in a full body hug. “That’s not my home anymore, My Princess. My home is with you. My life and my everything is with you. My family is you and Darius now.”